Rankin raps News | . BC. Press Council hears complaint over column THE TABLE manners of a prominent Vancouver lawyer and politician were debated Wednesday as the B.C. Press Council heard a complaint lodged against the North Shore News by Vancouver City Ald. Harry Rankin. Rankin lodged the complaint with the council cver a Nov, 23, 1990 column written by News col- uminist Trevor Lautens, in which Lautens described a dinner he and Rankin attended about 20 years ago in support of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA). In the column, which carried the headline “‘Hard to COPE with overtown communists’’, Lautens described what he maintained were Rankin’s graceless eating habits. Lautens wrote that, in his opi- nion, the only reason Rankin had eaten in the manner described was lo ‘‘show his solidarity with the Common People. He was eating politically.” Asked to outline his objection, Rankin told the press council that he objected to Lautens’ “being on this Earth,” but that he did nat object to Lautens writing about NEWS COLUMNIST Trevor Lautens (right) and Vancouver Ald. By Surj Rattan News Reporter newspaper lies iit its ability to of- fer a wide range of opinions and points of view, “Ive offered Mr. Rankin an opportunity to reply in a letter to the editor, but I have not heard back from him,”’ Renshaw said. Rankin, who described Lautens as ‘‘a pathological Red-baiter’’ and said he held the News in “deepest contempt,”” admitted that he was offered a chance to air his complaints in a letter to the edi- tor byt declined the opportunity because **! don't write to them (the press) and I don't talk to them.”” Renshaw said the press council was not the forum in which to air “disagreements over the persana! observations of columnists and other editorial writers.’’ NEWS photo Mike Weketield Harry Rankin each presented their cases to members of the B.C. Press Council. his table manners. “The actual complaint is not how I ate — which is a total lie — it’s that I deliberately lowered my eating habits to a pig-like manner as a political gesture in order to lower myself to their (DERA’s) level,’’ Rankin said. Rankin argued that the people of DERA had been slighted by the column because the inference that could be drawn from the column was that they,too,had poor table manners. But Lautens said there was not a word in his column to suggest that anyone else in DERA had poor table manners. He said the portion of his col- umn to which Rankin had ob- jected was clearly an opinion, and he accused Rankin of trying to censor the press simply because he did not agree with the views being expressed in the News. He then quoted from a book written by Rankin called Rankin’s Law, Recollections of a Radical “Stifling of fair criticism, whether by the courts or by individuals, is something that would be of dire consequence to the future of all editorializing." Said Lautens, ‘The fact is that I saw him eating this way. What follows is an opinion. The opinion of a columnist writing about a politician eating at a public din- ner,”’ said Lautens. “1 say in the last paragraph ‘I! may be wrong.’ ive bent over backwards to be fair to Mr. Rankin. I don’t know how I could have made it more clear that this was an opinion.”’ News managing editor Timothy Renshaw told the press council that “it’s mot the paper’s place or an editor’s place to censor a col- umnist’s opinion.” He said the strength of any He also pointed out that Rankin, as a high profile and often controversial politica! per- sonality, should be prepared to undergo the scrutiny of the press. Renshaw added that Rankin, who once referred to fellow Van- couver Ald. Gordon Price, as “tyou little rat,’’ should be able to accept criticism in the same spirit as he dishes it out. Vancouver Ald. Bruce Eriksen appeared as a witness on Rankin’s behalf and said he invited Lautens to the DERA dinner as a guest speaker and because he thought Lautens was a friend of DERA’s. But when asked by a council member if he actually believed a newspaper columnist would not write anything about a public event that he had been invited to, Eriksen replied *‘yes."’ Eriksen also vouched for the good tzble manners of Rankin, saying that the two had been to many social affairs together and had even eaten with the Queen, and that he had always found Rankin’s table manners to be satisfactory, But Lautens said he has never been a supporter of DERA’s and heatedly denied that he had been invited to the dinner as its guest of honor. ‘*f was nor invited because | was a friend of DERA‘s or because Mr. Eriksen liked the color of my eyes. I was asked because [| was a critic of DERA's,”” said Lautens. ‘Ar the end of the dinner, Mr. Eriksen referred to people critical of DERA and said ‘like Mr. Lautens over there’ and he pointed to me and everyone looked.’” Press council] chairman Bob Yanow said the council will issue its judgment at a later date. Friday, April 12, 1991 ~ North Shore News ~ 3 | NEWS photo Mike Wakefield VANCOUVER ALD. Harry Rankin makes a point during a B.C. Press Council hearing Wednesday involving the Nortis Shore News. By the fall, the North Van- couver family saw the first evi- dence — a horizontal crack in the wall — of what would be a lengthy ordeal involving a staggering 1,300 hours of labor for Laing and eventually result in a Jaw suit. “When I Jook back over the past two years | think, ‘How in the heck did we get through it all?’ "* said Petrie, a teacher in West Vancouver. Last week B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ross Collver awarded Petrie and Laing $105,000 and legal costs, as well as $]2 ner hour for more than 1,000 hours of work done by Laing. The decision was made against designer Edwin Dorffi and North Vancouver District, who were found to be liable for two-thirds and one-third of the damages, respectively. According to Brian Longpre, House of horror: NVcouple win court award in civil dispute IN JULY 1988, Elizabeth Petrie and John Laing pur- chased what was to become the source of a two-year domestic nightmare for them and their four children: a $254,000 house in the Edgemont Village area. By Elizabeth Collings News Reporter the lawyer for Petrie and La- ing, when Dorffi designed the Sunset Boulevard house in 1977, he failed to determine whether the lot’s ground was a suitable foundation for the house. The North Vancouver District bylaw in effect at the time applied the national build- ing code, which required that the foundations of houses built on fill should be based on stable soil. in addition, North Van- couver District was found to be liable for failing to adequately inspect the foundations of the home. When a crack appeared in the living room wall in fall 1988, Petrie and Laing thought the weight of their piano might have caused the crack. But by February 1989, 2 ver- tical crack had appeared in the wall, and from then on they could chart the cracks almost “weekly if not daily,’ Petrie said. After contacting North Van- couver District, the couple eventually hired structural ex- pert, Bob Vickars, who found that the house was resting on landfill made up of logs, dirt and other material. As the decomposition process started and then accelerated, the house tapidly sagged in its rotting foundations. According to Petrie’s estimates, the couple spent $65,000 on materials for the house. “It's been very tough — emotionaily, financially. [t's one of those things where you hate to come home,”’ she said. Since the decision, Longpre said there has been interest from other district area home- owners in the case. Offers of help pour in to NV family AN OUTPOURING of communi- ty support for a North Vancouver family left homeless and without most of their possessions after fire struck their home has given the family a fresh start on the North Shore. By Michael Becker News Reporter Eight members of the Kaminski family, including children ranging in age from three months to 17 years of age, were stranded after fire hit ther rented 300-block East Sixth Street home on April 2. All of cheir belongings were damaged by smoke and fire. The famiiv’s personal possessions were not insured. Meanwhile neighbors on the BM Automotives........... 23 @ Classified Ads.......... 29 M Ecotnfo............... 18 GiHome & Garden ....... 13 street, Roger and Mary Pat Buston, responded to the plight of the fire victims by setting up a trust fund for the family and by coordinating the drop-off of donations of goods at North Van- couver’s Ridgeway Elementary School earlier this week. According to Mary Pat Buston, volunteers working at the school were inundated with goods, in- cluding boxcs of new and old clothing. Volunteers fielded afters of furniture from people living throughout the Lower Maintand. Father John Tritschler, pastor of Holy Trinity Church on Lons- dale Avenue in North Vancouver, has given the Kaminskis a place to live. The family moved back to North Vancouver on Wednesday, taking residence in a six-bedroom building one used as a convent index f Mailbox .............. 7 BB Pau! St. Pierre... 200... 9 Trevor Lautens ........ 4 Bi What's Going On ...... 20 Second Class Registration Number 3885 next door to the church. “People have been fantastic. For all the evil that goes on in this world, this really renews your faith,’’ Buston said. Any extra donated goods will be given to the Salvation Army. Added Buston, ‘I'd like to thank everyone who helped, especially Tanya Pender, Ken Bradshaw, Deanna Barlow and Katie Ward — who voluntecred with Roger (Buston) at the school. fd also Jike to thank Frank Baumann (Ridgeway School prin- cipal) and Father Tritschler.** A trust fund, set up for the Kaminski family last week at the National Trust branch located at 1407 Lonsdale Ave. had received, us of Wednesday, $1,100 in cash donations. Weather Saturday and Sunday, clopdy with a chance of showers. Highs near 14°C, lows 5'C.